What New Year's goods should be prepared? The Spring Festival is a major traditional Chinese holiday. For thousands of years, people have regarded it as a significant event, making extensive preparations beforehand—including food, daily necessities, and clothing. So, what New Year's goods should be prepared?
Table of Contents
I. What New Year's Goods to Prepare
1. New Year's Shopping Guide
2. The Essence of Preparing New Year's Goods
3. Legends of the Spring Festival
II. Tips for Preparing New Year's Goods
III. Storage Techniques for New Year's Goods
What New Year's Goods to Prepare
1. New Year's Shopping Guide
1.1.Salted Preserves: Buy Ready-Made If Time Is Short
Pickling salted preserves and making wind-dried chicken are traditions in many households. While few purchase salted goods nowadays, buying a small amount for those who enjoy them allows for later use as side dishes.
1.2. Dried Goods: Buy in Bulk Once
Dried goods like wood ear mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, red dates, and honey dates have a long shelf life and can be purchased well in advance. Due to significant price differences, it's best to go directly to wholesale markets to select and buy in bulk.
1.3. Tobacco and Alcohol: Must Be Prepared Early
Tobacco and alcohol serve both as hospitality items during the Spring Festival and as gifts for friends and relatives. If you anticipate high demand, preparation must begin well in advance. This is especially true for premium cigarettes, as stores have limited stock. For large quantities, plan ahead.
1.4. Roasted Nuts and Snacks: Proper Storage is Key
Peanuts and melon seeds are the most traditional New Year's goods, found in nearly every household. Roasted peanuts are ubiquitous on streets and alleys, available both freshly roasted and pre-packaged. Supermarkets also offer branded packaged products.
2. The Essence of Preparing New Year's Goods
New Year's goods refer to the special items we purchase before the holiday, and the act of buying them is called "preparing New Year's goods." For example, during the New Year, we buy premium ingredients like abalone, shark fin, and sea cucumber to prepare a feast. This serves to reward ourselves for a year of hard work and celebrate the arrival of the new year.
In some regions, people place candies and melon seeds in a New Year's tray to offer to visiting relatives and friends during New Year's greetings.
Additionally, New Year's shopping includes gifts for visiting relatives and friends. In urban areas, chocolates and cookies are popular gifts, as it is traditional to bring presents when paying New Year's visits.
3. Legends of the Spring Festival
3.1 Legend One: Staying Awake to Ward Off the Nian Monster
In ancient times, a ferocious monster roamed the deep mountains and dense forests. People called it the "Nian."Its appearance was terrifying, and its nature was vicious. It preyed on birds, beasts, fish, and insects, changing its diet daily—from tiny insects to living humans. Mention of the "Nian" sent shivers down people's spines.Later, people gradually learned the creature's patterns: it would emerge every 365 days to feast on human flesh in populated areas, always appearing after dark. At dawn's first crow of the rooster, it would retreat back to the mountains.
3.2. The Second Legend of the Spring Festival: Wannian's Creation of the Calendar
Legend has it that in ancient times, a young man named Wannian observed the chaotic state of the seasonal calendar and resolved to establish a precise system.However, he struggled to find a method for measuring time. One day, exhausted from chopping wood in the mountains, he rested under a tree. The shifting shadows inspired him to design a sundial to measure daylight hours. Later, the dripping spring on the cliff sparked his ingenuity, leading him to craft a five-tiered water clock to calculate time.Over time, he observed that the seasons cycled every 360-plus days, repeating the same pattern of seasonal lengths. Tips for Preparing New Year's Goods 1. Shopping Malls—Seasonal Sales Offer Best Deals During seasonal transitions, retailers launch wave after wave of promotions. Ethnic-themed sales have become a popular marketing strategy.
2. Small Goods - Buy Spring Festival couplets near the New Year
Markets are ablaze with vibrant red decorations. Stalls overflow with New Year paintings and lanterns, while walls inside are adorned with Chinese knots of all sizes.
3. Pastries—Time-Honored Shops Offer Quality at Reasonable Prices
Each Lunar New Year, carrying distinctive gift boxes from time-honored shops brimming with festive spirit to visit relatives and friends has become a "trendy consumption" among Beijing residents.
With traditional festivals like Laba, Spring Festival, and the Lunar New Year clustering together this year, these time-honored brands have launched distinctive holiday gift boxes, takeout options, and handheld snacks—all of which have become instant hits.
4. Fruit—Buy by the Box and Wrap It Yourself
Prices tend to rise closer to the New Year, so to save money, consider purchasing non-perishable fruits like apples, kumquats, or navel oranges in advance. If you plan to gift fruit, why not wrap it yourself?
Make your own fruit baskets: Purchase a bamboo or woven basket, fill it with carefully selected fruits, and wrap it in decorative paper. This costs at least half the price of store-bought baskets while ensuring fruit quality—avoiding issues like "black-hearted" produce.
Storage Tips for New Year's Groceries
1. Avoid excessive purchasing
Approach New Year's shopping with restraint—there's no need to buy in excess.
3. Refrigerator Storage
Avoid overcrowding the refrigerator. Fill it to about 50% capacity to allow proper air circulation.
5. Do not refrigerate spoiled food
Only fresh food should be refrigerated. Signs of spoilage include fish with a foul odor, meat with an unusual smell, or eggs with leaking yolks. Such items should not be stored in the refrigerator.
6. Spoiled New Year's provisions
If you discover spoiled New Year's provisions, do not consume them. Don't risk your health for minor savings.
7. Avoid buying fruits and vegetables too early